Current Affairs

December 16, 2011

A message I got from Mary who is frightened about world and national conditions…

Hi Steve, can I have your take on the world right now? I value your opinion, as I've been listening to you and working your CDs for years. Quite honestly, I don't know who else to trust right now, seriously. I really don't.

There is so much news and information on "doom and gloom." There's the declining deficit, the 14 trillion dollar debt, "hitting a legal limit of debt," the "economic Armageddon"...saveyourself, take stock in gold and silver, as it's the only thing that will exist once the value of our dollar is gone, but make sure it's the real thing, here buy it from me...

You can't believe anything the government says, but believe me...and for a small fee of $6,000 and your first born, I will share with you the secrets of the government and what's "really" going on in the world and how to save yourself.

Beware cuz the world is coming to an end Dec. 21, 2012...Yet, in all honestly, you can't help but look at what's happening with the government, politics, the natural disasters, all the scams and corruption, job loss, the suicide rate, healthcare - or lack thereof, other countries, and wonder if the world is coming to an end...the list goes on and on and on. I've not been one to buy into any of this "doom and gloom" in the past, but lately just seeing what's going on in my own world...I'm down right scared. This stuff is real and doesn't look to be getting better any time soon.

I am a single mom of two, I have no back up, not much family and I am scared to death for my children whom are 4 and 6. What is going on?! Looks like the world is going to hell in a hand basket. My only outlet right now for hope and peace is God.

Maybe that's the way it should be, but wow. Just wow! I assume you are more in touch with the big picture, do you have any thoughts? This attitude isn't me and I don't like it, but I'm facing possibly losing my job again and I'm not alone. Please shed some light, wisdom, hope...anything. I do value your words and outlook. THANK YOU in advance for taking the time to read this and hear me.

* * * * * *

Dear Mary (not her real name although she courageously allowed me to reprint her message for everyone to see.)

I just finished reading In The Garden of Beastsby Eric Larson about an American family living in Berlin during Hitler's bloody rise to power and the beginning of the world war. People were pulled from their homes and executed for being Jewish, or any other reason the Nazis could think of.

Yet in the middle of all that some people refused to give in. They grew stronger and more creative. Just like a kite rises against the wind, so can we.

Many people have read Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. He was in a concentration camp watching his family members die. And he grew stronger and found his spirit and life's work right there and then.

In Time Warrior (which is something a woman like you can be) I talked about how sometimes hard times and recessions can return us to the principles we always wanted to live by anyway. The principles that give us pride and satisfaction. Like this one: A penny saved is a penny earned. Or, self-reliance. (As a startling new concept.) And even this: One hour of planning saves three days of confusion.

Then, when the "hard times" lift, as they always do, we are stronger and wiser. So my question to myself is not How Will I Survive This? It's How Will I Use This?

Hard economic times are bad for us, is that true?

Hardship is bad for us. Is that true?

Whenever I have anything at all in my life that appears "bad" for me I pull out my ByronKatie books and CDs and plunge back into her work.

I recommend her to you as well.

Don't just frequent her writings but do the difficult and courageous work she invites you to do and really do it. Follow the simple directions. Don't just sit on the edge of the water and put your toe in the water, but jump in and swim, and swim. It will take more courage than you ever thought you had to challenge those thoughts.

If you read Victor Frankl's account of life inside a Nazi prison camp you will be convinced that external circumstances and "hard times" really mean nothing compared to the spirit that is yours to grow.

We can all get caught up in the upheaval of our banking systems, real estate, credit cards, and really scare ourselves. But what would you like to create today? Fear comes from my mind going insanely into the future instead of CREATING a wonderful life TODAY, this day, right here, right now. This is the day. Life does not live in some worrisome tomorrow. It hangs out here.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "A political victory, a rise of rents, the recovery of your sick, the return of your absent friend, or some other favorable event raises your spirits, and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles."

You can shift from external circumstance to inner strength.

Shift your mind shift the world.

That's the joy of shifting the mind. It stirs up ideas like butterflies risingfrom a flowered bush. The mind can shift up from worries to ideas.

Here's one idea. Things are changing dramatically. Sick home mortgage systems are getting cleaned out so that we can build back stronger. Waste and high rolling are being blown from the corridors of the financial casinos. It scares people to become this healthy this fast. Hold on! Let me languish awhile. Let's not change so quickly. Let me pause for a moment or two longer to savor the false sense of wealth I used to have.

But change is a good thing. Can't you see? It allows us to develop self-reliance in an age of severe codependence. No longer do we ride the latest business bubble, or look for parental organizations to care for us. We grow.

Don't we?

It's certainly an available response to the times. Any times.

No matter what has ever happened in history there were always heroic, creative responses to it by individuals who rose up. People like Anne Frank, Joan of Arc and Ayn Rand who stood up to tyranny with art and power.

People like Viktor Frankl who rose up from the concentration camp with a beaming new psychological masterpiece. Frankl had written his psychological masterpiece prior to being thrown into the camps and the guards took it away and burned it. He re-wrote the whole book in his mind! That was the one thing they could not take away.

However, it is not always our first impulse to rise up and answer the challenge of change. As Andrew Cohen has said, "It seems to be the human tendency to want to resist change, to want to create the illusion of security in an insecure universe, and to avoid at all costs facing into the awesome and unlimited nature of life itself."

Hard times allow us to see that we ourselves share in these awesome and unlimited natures that we haven't even begun to call upon.

So Mary, there's an approach to this whole worry-about-the-future thing that people fall into when they are out of action... and I created an audio program around it called WELCOMING EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE....if you (anyone reading this too) email my publisher Maurice (reinventingyourself@gmail.com) he will send you this audio.As a gift.